iTunes

With the growing popularity of podcasts and audiobooks these days, it appears that Apple is planning to offer a similar way for users to listen to written news articles. As part of new feature coming to iTunes soon, "Spoken Editions" audio podcasts will offer spoken word versions of written articles from a wide variety of news sources. Much like how Amazon's voice assistant Alexa is capable of reading news headlines and other information via the Echo speaker, being able to listen to the news frees up users to do other things at the same time.

Security forensics company Elcomsoft revealed last week that encrypted iOS backups created in iTunes have been made far less secure with the recent release of iOS 10. While an unintentional flaw, the new password protected backups offer an "alternative password verification mechanism" that allows them to fall victim to brute force hacks much more quickly and easily than with previous iOS versions. Fortunately Apple acknowledged the issue, and says a fix is on the way with "an upcoming security update."

It may not seem like it to many people out there but Apple has now been shilling movies on iTunes for a decade. To celebrate the tenth birthday of iTunes movies, Apple has put together bundles that offer fans ten movies for only ten bucks. There are six different bundles that movie fans and choose from and they can be had in SD or HD for the same $9.99 price tag.

Today Google has released a brand new teamwork app and ecosystem by the name of "Spaces." Users of Google's accounts - signed up with a Gmail account, that is - will be able to take part in Google's new Spaces app. This app has the ability to create rooms or "spaces" on topics. You'll create a space based on a topic then invite users via messaging, email, social network, or "whatever way you like." We can imagine this will be used in ways both intended and beyond what Google intended in short order.

For the last week and a half, there have been a growing number of complaints from Apple Music and iTunes users about locally stored music being deleted in exchange for copies available in the cloud. As James Pinkstone, whose blog post kicked off this controversy, explains, the problem (aside from removing music without explicit permission) is that there is a high chance of mis-matching or mis-identifying songs, resulting in original recordings being deleted and rare, alternate versions of songs being replaced with the widely released copies.

There's no doubt that streaming music is rapidly becoming the standard way people consume digital audio — it hasn't already for many users. Streaming has already surpassed physical music sales in terms of revenue, and it will likely overtake downloads sometime in the future. But the idea of streaming being the only option for paying for music is certainly something many would balk at, which is why Apple made the rare move of shutting down a rumor that iTunes would discontinue music downloads in the next few years.

The last few years have seen the podcast audio format return as a popular entertainment medium, with the hit series Serial serving as a prime example of the large audience they can draw in. Apple seems to recognize this, along with the fact that there are a number issues frustrating podcast producers. A new report from The New York Times says the company recently met with several leading podcasters to discus the format's future.

The keyboard known as Word Flow has come to iOS this morning, complete with custom backgrounds and one-handed typing features. This app was previously only available for Windows Phone devices - believe it or not - and will now be available optimized for iPhones of all sizes. That means that regardless of if you're using a tiny iPhone SE or the monstrously sized iPhone 6 Plus, this keyboard is sized just right.

The Great Firewall of China strikes again, or so this New York Times report claims. Last week, hundreds of Apple device users in China suddenly found themselves blocked from the company's iTunes Movies and iBooks services, which was just launched in the country last September. Although no official statement has been made yet, the report claims that a Chinese regulator is behind the shutdown. Rather than a simple isolated case, the move is being painted as part of a larger crackdown on foreign companies operating in China.

When I was growing up, it was pretty easy for my parents to keep track of what I did, and how I spent money. Parents these days have to tackle things on a completely different playing field, thanks to the rise of smartphones. One way that parents could help keep their kids' spending in check was through Apple's Allowances feature. Unfortunately the company has just announced that they will be doing away with that feature.

As of today, Apple's iTunes Radio is no more, with the once free, ad-supported music channels being integrated into the subscription-based Apple Music service. The company originally announced the change earlier this month, and now the radio stations are officially off-air. iOS users that try to listen to a station within the Music app are now given a prompt inviting them join the Apple Music streaming service, with those on a Mac seeing the same message in iTunes.

The days of free iTunes Radio streaming are nearing their end, with Apple sending notifications to customers in the United States and Australia regarding an upcoming paywall. Those who don’t want to pay will have the Beats 1 "premiere free broadcast" for listening, but those who want more will need to shell out $9.99/month for an Apple Music subscription.